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Monthly Archives: March 2017

Avvaiyar is a prominent female poet of Tamil literature. She found great happiness in the life of children.

Avvaiyar

Her works, Aathichudi and Konrai Venthan, written for children, are even now read and enjoyed by them.

Aathichudi

Konrai Venthan

These works, even after a millennium, are often among the very first literature that children are exposed to in Tamil schools.

Aathichudi

In the method of teaching the children, she composed very short single line verse, in the exact sequence of the alphabets. Each verse of the poem was not only alphabetically sequential but also had a simple life message that the children could learn as their first lessons and inculcate their import in their lives.

This idea of inculcating value as the first lessons to young child was intriguing to Dr. G.U. Pope a British educationist and Christian missionary who settled in India. He was in India in 1840’s in Tirunalveli, Madras and Bangalore.

In his quote he says

“It is Peculiar that Indians teach Philosophy to their Children”.

Dr. G.U. Pope

Probably he misread inculcating good values to the young children as philosophy. For then back in England moral values and philosophy was start only in Theological Institutions.

Let us here see the alphabetical sequence of a simple beautiful value laden Aathichudi.

Aathichudi

Avvaiyar also interacted with Lord Muruga, Skanda on the beauty of the Tamil language.

Lord Murugan interacting with Avvaiyar

Avvai Vizha, the day for this grand old lady Avvaiyar, is celebrated every year in the month of Panguni (mid-March to mid-April) on Sadhayam star day.

One of her most popular verse on what we know, what we learnt is:

The popularity of this poignant quote of Avvaiyar is not only limited to the Tamil land but have spread far, in the west to USA and in the east to Singapore.

The concept of Meru is pyramidal in shape. Pyramids are there all over the world. In Egypt, in Mexico, in Bosnia, in Turkey and in many other places. At each place, the physical pyramids have different purposes. Researchers are today unravelling newer meanings for what these pyramids stood.

Meru

In the Indian civilization too, the concept of pyramids does exist, not in the physical form of gigantic pyramids but in the concept of Meru. At a ritual level, there is Meru worship.

For the noble factors that are inherent in Meru, it is referred to as Su Meru.

Sumeru Parvat

We call Egyptian pyramids as “pyramids”, as the word is derived from the Greek word, “pyre mid”, meaning there is fire energy in the middle of the pyramid. The ancient Egyptian word in the native Egyptian language in “Mru”. It is indeed interesting to note that Mru and Meru are phonetically similar and refer to a similar concept.

Egyptian Pyramids

Conical Meru Shaped structure, Turkey

Pyramid of the Moon Mexico

While archaeological remains of pyramids are available all over the world as hardware, the information on why they were made and how they were made has been lost in all these lands.

In India however, we have exhaustive texts on Meru, on what it means and on why we give importance to this concept of Meru.

Does this suggest that while hardware is strewn all over the world, the software to understand them lies in the ancient Indian Meru texts?

A connect is needed between the two to unravel the mysteries of pyramids. In iconography, one of the forms of Vishnu is known as Srivatsa. This can be identified with a pyramidal triangle etched on the chest of Vishnu over His heart.

Among many things, the Meru symbol also denotes knowledge. This symbolism of denoting knowledge is not just in Indian thought but can also be seen in architecture in Greco Roman style Fasad as well.

In the Indian thought, the base knowledge on each subjects originates from the Veda which is the starting point. That knowledge is explained in different Upanishads. This knowledge is also explained with stories in different Purana. The scholars and rishi give further information as relevance to their times. This creates a plethora of other subjects. In present day Hindi, these are commonly called as Tipany.

This way of arranging of knowledge from the source through all these explanatory texts are pyramidal in shape. Thus we see, among the many explanations for Meru, the explanation and arrangement of knowledge as it has come down to us today, is in the shape of Meru.

Bharath Gyan is conceptualized by D. K. Hari and D. K. Hema Hari with the objective to scientifically collate and disseminate the knowledge of India and its ties with other civilizations from ancient to modern times